The worst part of starting something new is deciding what to do This time I have 78 cards to choose from, if I want to do the whole set that is. So I have started with one of my favorite cards in the deck the ace of cups I start out with the fabric and my idea drawn out in water soluble marker, I am going to sew it all in satin stitch and dmc threads to keep it simple I chose this white satin which I have a small ton of from a wedding dress I made for a friend ten million years ago
You might notice I outline everything with chain stitch first, this is to keep my satin stitch fairly even all the way through the piece. and to give me the embroidery a little bit of lift Why Tarot cards you may ask. First off, the amount of art that goes into a deck of cards is astonishing. There are 78 of them and they represent not just the 52 basic playing cards we all know it adds 26 major arcana cards to represent the journey of the soul through life. Yes, for some people it's very woo-woo I have been fascinated with the Tarot cards since I was a child back then (In the dark ages) we only had two or three decks to look at and only one that was commercially available,
at you'r local hippy-dippy one stop herbal remedy and spiritual awakening shop. Which was the venerable Rider Wait Tarot. Though there were several decks before this one, the French Marseilles deck and the Italian Visconte deck have been used since the early 1400's as playing cards.
These were probably based on the Mamuluk deck from Egypt and Persia which have been around since the pyramids, and possibly the "leaf game" which was all the rage in the 860' Tang dynasty China. It's not until the occultists who in the 1880's got a hold of them for divination, did the cards themselves attain their veneer
of spirituality/devil worship, and managed to ruin everything. Thank you Victorians.
And now that you know way more about playing card than you ever thought to, I return you to this embroidery already in progress.Anyway they're pretty that's why
Those clouds are looking good And since blogger's formatting is being a poo today despite a refresh and turning it off and back on i'm going to show you the progress and finished card at the bottom
Since each card has symbolism and meanings baked into them from the afore mentioned occultists and I have used them as guides from time to time when feeling out of control and stressed regardless of the fact that is is just hokum and woo-woo the meaning of this card for me is
Love rules our lives not power. The act of giving of yourself, peacefully to the world, it fills not only your cup but the world around you. I had fun with this card so much so I will be doing at least a few more. hopefully bloggers attitude will be better in forthcoming posts or the explanations are going to be short and may contain swear words
